Bill Metcalf, left, and Herman Erbacher have filled their bags with more than fast food wrappers and cigarette butts. There’s a discarded seat from a John Deere riding mower, an 8-inch bolt and some rusty wire.

Most people won't notice them walking along the highways and byways of Beaufort County. For that matter, most people aren't even up, out and about at the time these road warriors hit the asphalt.

By 7 a.m. on many Saturdays, volunteers have gathered in parking lots to receive assignments from their Adopt-a-Highway team captains. Once a month, these hardy and hearty bands of tidy folk don bright, reflective fluorescent orange vests and work gloves and test their long-handled trash grabbers.

South of the Broad River, highway clean-up is undertaken by groups like the Order of Ancient Hibernians, Sun City Riverbend residents, Carolina Dreamers Car Club, Sun City Lions Club, Church of The Palms, the Sun City Veterans Association, St. Gregory Catholics, Engard Realty, All Joy Buzzard Brigade, Lord of Life Lutheran Church, Sun City Cyclers, Shell Hall and Bluffton Today.

Some groups have a few members, others have many. At last count, there were 65 groups listing 525 volunteers. The vets have 41 members on the roster, according to the group's leader, Mike Brown. They meet at Pinckney Hall in Sun City, arriving in full cars or on golf carts. Brown makes sure they each have their equipment, recently handing out large, new vests in exchange for original issue of older, smaller vests. The volunteers all pull one or two bright orange plastic bags from a box Brown keeps in the back of his SUV.

The supplies are provided by Veronica Miller, coordinator for Keep Beaufort County Beautiful. The county public works department oversees the Adopt-a-Highway program, sponsored through the S.C. Department of Transportation.

After sending his teams out like a field marshal strategically assigning his troops, Brown and a few others head to U.S. 278, where they pull into a business parking lot that is empty at the early hour.

With all due caution, they gingerly cross the double lanes of highway on the Bluffton side of the Okatie River bridge and begin picking up debris. It doesn't take long for bags to fill.

So why get up early on a Saturday, whether you're retired or not?

"I think the fellows feel like they're giving back," Brown said. "They're very faithful and they're out in all kinds of weather."

That's certainly the sentiments of the men walking along 278, keeping one eye on oncoming traffic and another on the ground in front of them.

"I want to keep the highway clean," said Army veteran John Yahasz.

Chuck Roth, at 78 the oldest volunteer out that day, has been cleaning up the roads for about nine years.

"I do it for the comradeship," he said, "and it's a necessary evil."

It doesn't take too long - between 20 minutes and an hour every time - before the job is done.

"They ought to outlaw that packing material that looks like peanuts," said Herman Erbacher, also an Army vet. "It's hard to pick up."

Styrofoam's the biggest problem because it never breaks down. It also breaks up into little pieces and that makes it almost as much of a nuisance as the hundreds of thousands of cigarette butts tossed out of car windows.

"I'm always amazed that people think it's OK to throw a cigarette out when it's dry," Brown said shaking his head. "That's how the little fires start on the side of the road."

Two months ago, Brown said, the trash was very bad because they had skipped a month with people being away and the weather being so bad.

"We used to get somewhere between 20 and 30 bags of trash. Must be a lot less pickups and construction trucks. If you come out here every month, you can keep this under control," he said. But they don't do dead animals. "We let them alone. Sometimes the highway people get them. Other times, we'll come back and find the stripped bones and then we'll put those in our bags."

On this particular Saturday, Eberhart hauls to the drop site a discarded seat from a John Deere riding mower. Everything finds its way into the bags, including rags, debris that floats out of uncovered commercial trucks, beer bottles and cans, strips of plastic, wallets, credit cards, checks and even money. They put the cash into one of the veterans' charity funds, like postage for mailing care packages to the troops.

Down on S.C. 170, Dick and Michelle Eberhart and Don Winchester have fanned out from Riverbend to pick up trash. Already there are about eight filled bags sitting under a pin oak waiting for the county's public works trucks to pick up sometime during the next week.

"We don't want our place to look garbagey," said Michelle.

During this round of cleaning, the Riverbend team has found - among other things - a hubcap and a Rubics cube in really bad shape with no colored stickers and several of the cubes missing.

There's nothing glamorous about the work. It's not one of those volunteer positions that will launch people into the spotlight. But it has proven to be critical to maintaining the attractiveness and beauty of the Lowcountry.

The next week, St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church's small but dedicated team picks up along 278 as well as down Pinckney Colony Road.

Bob Keller and Bernie Wilson, who has been cleaning the roads for about 12 years, are just finishing as the sun begins to break through the morning mist. They do this "just to help the community."

It doesn't seem like a few people bending, picking up a few cans, butts and paper cups would make much difference, but when the numbers are sent in to the public works folks, they become staggeringly important.

Adopt-a-Highway picked up nearly 145,000 pounds of trash last year, according to county recycling coordinator Carol Murphy. That equates to 73 tons collected along 178 miles covered by the program.

And then there are the 948 participants in the community service program, operated through the CORE system, who picked up 232,225 pounds or 116 tons of trash along other roadways and boat landings. They put in 5,688 work hours.

That's 189 tons of garbage carelessly tossed out car windows, blown from truck beds or dumped on the road rather than placed in the proper containers. Imagine if that were still on the side of the road where visitors could see it. The associated chambers of commerce would have a hard time convincing people of the beauty of our area if it were not for those who don't mind spending a little of their time to keep the place tidy.

A recent note from Brown to his volunteers pretty much says it all about volunteers and their "life on the road":

"My thanks to all of you who braved the changeable weather this morning and went out and cleaned your highway routes. It was touch and go weather wise but most of you decided that you were up for the challenge so we went out. You braved the intermittent rain and wind and got the job done. We left for our routes when it wasn't raining and naturally after about 10 minutes of collection it started to rain. I've never been more proud of this group of dedicated volunteers than today. You once again showed how much you care about not only keeping our surrounding area clean but about giving back to your community.

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